IMPACT OF HUSBAND’S DEMENTIA: INNOVATIVE METHODS TO STUDY HEALTH PROFILES AND CO-TRAJECTORIES BETWEEN COUPLES

Abstract Traditional life course studies often focus on how one predictor influences one health outcome that may not be able to capture the interdependence of two or more health trajectories very well. Objectives: (1) demonstrate an innovative method to create a 3-dimensional health profile cube that presents physical, mental, and cognitive health and the changing trajectories over time; (2) display how a woman’s health profile may change due to the onset of their male partner’s dementia; and (3) visualize how couple’s co-trajectories of health profiles may vary by their age, race/ethnicity, and household wealth. Methods: We focus on married and partnered couples, drawing longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (2000-2016; n=3,578). Physical, mental, and cognitive health were respectively measured by functional limitation, depression symptoms (CESD-II), and modified version of the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS). We use vector autoregression (VAR) models to analyze these multivariate paths in the same visual representation as the original data. Results: The approach provides both an analytic framework and a visualization tool that depicts data and model in the same spatial representation to permit assessment of model fit and model comparison. This study advances the traditional life course studies by representing underlying processes as a multidimensional time vector of health outcomes, which better reflect the interdependent co-trajectories of health outcomes and the essence of the life course conceptual framework. Discussion: This paper provides a blueprint for studying complex health profiles or trajectories.

both spouses reported being "very similar," women in marriages with discordant views on the partners' similarity had significantly lower cognition in 2020 (wife gave the poorer rating: b=-0.74,p<.05; husband gave the poorer rating: b=-0.84,p<.05).Men's cognitive function was not influenced by assessments of similarity in the couple.Furthermore, compared with dyads in which both spouses reported being "very close," men in marriages with discordant views on the partners' closeness had significantly lower cognition in 2020 (woman gave the poorer rating: b= -0.88, p < .05).Women's cognitive function was unrelated to dyadic reports of closeness.Our results suggest that within-couple discordance in assessment of marital closeness and spousal similarity -more than marital attributes themselves -influences later-life cognitive function for women and men in varied ways.This research draws upon the life course perspective to examine how sexual frequency is related to different cognitive domains among community-dwelling, partnered older adults.I analyzed data from 1,526 respondents across two rounds of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP).I tested six cognitive domains: temporal orientation, visuospatial skills, attention, language, executive function, and short-term memory.I ran cross-lagged models to test for reciprocal relationships between sexual frequency and cognitive domain performance.Age-stratified results indicate that more frequent sex was related to better performance on temporal orientation, executive function, attention, and short-term memory domains over time for adults aged 75-90, with no significant results for adults aged 62-74.There was limited evidence that cognitive domain performance was related to later sexual frequency for the 75-90 age group.The results highlight nuanced pathways by which sexuality is tied to the health of older adults.Understanding which cognitive domains may be maintained through more frequent sex is informative for health care practitioners who consider sexual activity as a behavior to prevent cognitive impairment.
Objectives: (1) demonstrate an innovative method to create a 3-dimensional health profile cube that presents physical, mental, and cognitive health and the changing trajectories over time; (2) display how a woman's health profile may change due to the onset of their male partner's dementia; and (3) visualize how couple's co-trajectories of health profiles may vary by their age, race/ethnicity, and household wealth.
Methods: We focus on married and partnered couples, drawing longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (2000-2016; n=3,578).Physical, mental, and cognitive health were respectively measured by functional limitation, depression symptoms (CESD-II), and modified version of the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS).We use vector autoregression (VAR) models to analyze these multivariate paths in the same visual representation as the original data.
Results: The approach provides both an analytic framework and a visualization tool that depicts data and model in the same spatial representation to permit assessment of model fit and model comparison.This study advances the traditional life course studies by representing underlying processes as a multidimensional time vector of health outcomes, which better reflect the interdependent co-trajectories of health outcomes and the essence of the life course conceptual framework.
Discussion: This paper provides a blueprint for studying complex health profiles or trajectories.

LEISURE ACTIVITIES, MARITAL STATUS, AND COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING IN LATER LIFE IN MEXICO Maria Monserud, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, United States
Prior research indicates that leisure activities can shape cognition in later life.However, little is known about whether the implications of specific group and individual leisure activities for older adults' cognitive functioning can be contingent on marital status and gender and whether physical and mental health can make a difference in the associations between leisure participation and cognition.Moreover, research on the role of these factors in older adults' cognitive functioning in Mexico has been scarce.Using data from the most recent wave (2018) of the Mexican Health and Aging Study, a nationally representative sample of Mexicans aged 50+, this study examines the implications of group and individual leisure activities for cognition among married and unmarried older men and women in Mexico while considering their physical health (i.e., vision, hearing, chronic conditions, and ADL and IADL limitations) and depressive symptoms.The results suggest that not only group-based but also individual activities can be predictive of cognitive functioning among older Mexicans.The findings also reveal some marital status and gender differences and similarities in the effect of certain leisure activities on cognition.Additionally, the results demonstrate that experiencing physical health challenges and depressive symptoms can prevent older Mexicans from deriving cognitive benefits from some leisure activities.Yet, despite poorer physical and mental health, certain leisure activities can still lead to better cognitive functioning in this population group.The insights from this study can be useful for the development of preventive strategies and intervention programs to improve cognitive health in later life.

SOCIAL ISOLATION AND RISK OF DEMENTIA: DO RACE, ETHNICITY, AND GENDER MATTER?
Zhiyong Lin 1 , and Hui (Cathy) Liu 2 , 1. University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, United States, 2. Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States Social isolation has emerged as a significant predictor of dementia risk in later life.However, our understanding of how this association may vary across race-ethnicity and gender remains limited.To address this gap, we used longitudinal data from the Health andRetirement Study (2000-2016) to examine the link between social isolation and dementia risk among older adults, separately for non-Hispanic Whites, non-Hispanic Blacks, and Hispanics.We also explored gender variations in this association within each racial-ethnic group.Our results indicate that social isolation increases the risk of dementia for both non-Hispanic Whites and Blacks, even after controlling for basic sociodemographic characteristics.However, social isolation does not appear to be a significant predictor of dementia risk among Hispanics, suggesting that cultural and social factors may play a key role in the association between social isolation and dementia risk across racial/ethnic groups.Further, we found few significant gender variations in the association between social isolation and dementia, except for a stronger effect of severe isolation among Black men compared to Black women.Economic resources and health-related factors were identified as significant mediators of the relationship between social isolation and dementia risk for both non-Hispanic Whites and Blacks.Our study highlights the importance of addressing social isolation as a potential risk factor for dementia among older adults, particularly for those in vulnerable groups.The findings underscore the need for targeted interventions to reduce social isolation and promote social engagement in diverse communities to mitigate dementia risk.

ROOTS TO GROW AND WINGS TO FLY: EDUCATING MEDICINE AND PHARMACY TRAINEES ON VIONE MEDICATION DEPRESCRIBING METHODOLOGY
Chair: Saraswathy Battar Co-Chair: Michael Silverman An aging world population translates to more chronic illnesses, more medications with potential and relevant cumulative burdens such as non-compliance, adverse outcomes, prescription cascades, confusion, compromised patient safety and quality of life standards.VIONE stands for the 5 filters that categorize medications as Vital, Important, Optional, Not indicated, Every medication has an indication.This is an electronic health record methodology currently implemented in 122 VA facilities across the nation.Physicians and pharmacists review medications, prioritize medications that merit deprescribing interventions, deprescribe through shared decision making and monitor outcomes.In the VA system, within 7 years, we successfully deprescribed over 1.4 million inappropriate medications impacting over 600,000 veterans, used by over 14000 medical providers, with an annualized cost savings of ~ 132 million US dollars.We incorporate VIONE deprescribing education while training our pharmacy residents, medical students, residents and fellows